


There's a Demon Following Me and It Thinks It Owes Me Its Life.

by bunbondoeswriting



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Demon Gamzee, Gen, Life Debt, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Gamzee Makara, POV Karkat Vantas, Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24615205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunbondoeswriting/pseuds/bunbondoeswriting
Summary: Karkat finds an injured shapeshifter and decides to take care of it until it's better, thus saving its life. Then it decides it wants to repay the favor.
Relationships: Gamzee Makara & Karkat Vantas
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

You are on your way home from a very long day of work when you get a message from a friend asking for a favor. Because heaven forbid Karkat Vantas takes a break for once in his miserable fucking life. So obviously you tell him that of course you’ll help him, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when a friend asks you for a favor. He’s pretty close by, which is good because you don’t have a driver’s license at the moment for reasons you’d prefer not to disclose. About a block later you see something hunched over on the side of the path. You’re taking a shortcut through a pretty well abandoned part of town. As you get closer to it, you can see that it looks like a small person with horns and a tail. The horns spiral out of the top of its head and the tail is long, black, and has a barbed tip. Upon closer inspection, you see that it also has light grey skin. Its face is covered by a mop of curly black hair. There is purple blood pooling under it from several injuries. From what you can tell, it’s still breathing, but barely. Now, it’s important to note that you are not, by far, a very stupid or ignorant person. Your parents and teachers and almost every adult in your life growing up have told you repeatedly about the dangers of demons, and you’ve had your share of close calls with pretty common ones. The wise thing to do would be to call your local Demon Patrol and let them take care of it, or even to just leave it here and forget about it. This is not what you do. Instead, you fish out your trusty First Aid kit from your bag and kneel down in the dirt. You clean and dress the injuries as well as you can with what you have. Then, because you don’t really want to leave the demon here, but you can’t take it into town with you and also you have blood and dirt staining your pants now, you message your friend. You tell him that something just came up and you can’t meet up with him right now, but maybe you’ll be available later. He tells you it’s fine, he’ll just get one of your other friends to help. He seems a little bitter about it, but you’ve been friends with Sollux for a long time and you’re sure he understands. You sigh, trying to figure out what to do with the thing. According to its blood color, it’s semi-rare and very powerful, though powerful demons are supposed to be bigger… A lot bigger. You sigh, deciding on tucking it under your shirt and taking the backroads back to your apartment. You get a few odd looks, but noone questions you and you get there without much trouble. You lock your apartment door behind you, taking the demon out if your shirt and setting it on your couch. Jesus, what the hell are you gonna do now? What if it wakes up and tries to attack you? Oh god, this was a bad idea. You sigh, taking it to your room. At least so it can have something comfortable to sleep on. You look through your fridge for any raw and bloody meat. Of course you find none. Maybe it’ll just eat hot dogs? Those are pretty raw, though not bloody. Does it really have to be bloody? Maybe they're just carnivores and can eat any kind of meat… You startle as you hear a noise from your room, going to check on the demon, because you’re just that dumb. When you get there, it’s gone, and the bandages lay in a pile on your bed. A trail of blood, getting progressively thinner, leads to a mouse hole in your wall. Fucking shapshifter- You hope it didn’t leave your apartment, it probably wouldn’t get very far in its state… You hear a scuttling from the kitchen and rush in, to see a cat with odd markings eating the torn open package of hot dogs. It notices you, turning into a rat as it darts past you. You lunge after it, managing to catch it. It squeaks and squirms, still bleeding everywhere, and then it’s a snake and it’s wiggling out of your arms, and you grab its head and hold it as still as you can so you don’t injure it further. You try to shush it, holding it to your chest. Surprisingly, it stops squirming and starts to calm down, shifting back into its main form. You sigh. “Hey… do you speak… my language?” It looks up at you and for a moment you think it hasn’t understood, but then it nods slightly. “Okay, I’m going to try and heal you as much as I can, okay?” It nods again. You take it to the bathroom and get a rag, soaking it in warm water and starting to take it’s torn clothes off. It lets you move it, and you start to wash it off in the tub. It shivers a little, closing its eyes. You start to bandage it up, it doesn’t look like it needs any major medical treatment, which is good, because you don’t think you’re fit to provide that. “So, do you have a name or what?”  
It’s silent for a minute before shakily saying its name, “Gamzee…”  
Well, that was easy. You nod. “Mine’s Karkat- er, sorry to be rude, but, how should I refer to you? Like, pronouns?”  
“Demons don’t have gender or pronouns. Call me whatever you like, motherfucker…”  
You nod, finishing up the bandages. “Do you need a place to stay until you’re better?” They hesitate, then nod. You pick them back up, laying them on your bed and taking the dirty bandages to throw away. You come back with the half eaten package of hot dogs, handing it to Gamzee so they can eat it. They devour it hungrily. Looks like you’re going to have to buy more food...


	2. Chapter 2

It’s been three long weeks since you took Gamzee in, and now they’re healed and ready to go. You sort of feel bad kicking them out, but you know you really shouldn’t keep them around longer than you have to. They’re surprisingly okay with this, and you sigh in relief as they shift into a bird and fly out the window. You turn on a movie and start to watch it, nibbling on popcorn. After a while you fall asleep in front of the movie.  
The next morning, you’re on the way to work when you notice a small, fluffy dog following you. You turn around and it stops walking, staring at you with its tongue lolling out of its mouth. It’s a black color with light grey spots. The spots on its face almost look like a smiley face, and you chuckle to yourself, turning to walk away. When you notice it still following you, you stop to dig around your bag for a hunk of meat and toss it to the dog. The dog eats gratefully and you go on your way. That was supposed to be your lunch, but whatever. You’re almost at the cafe when you notice it still behind you. Fuck, it knows you have meat now… You turn around. “Hey, uhh, that was actually my only meat, so… Shoo!”   
It tilts its head and you hear a familiar voice say, “That’s okay, brother. I’m not after meat.”  
You look around for the source before freezing and looking back at the dog. “Gamzee?” You whisper in a hushed voice.  
“The one and only,” You hear. You knew that damn dog looked familiar!  
“What are you doing?” You hiss.  
“I’m here to protect you from harm, motherfucker. You done me a solid in saving my life, so I thought I'd up and return the favor.” They scratch behind their ear with a hind paw.  
You open and close your mouth, huffing. “You can’t just follow me around all day! I have to go to work! Besides, you don’t owe me anything. I don’t even get into dangerous situations!”  
They put their leg down and look up at you. “Don’t be so modest. If it weren’t for you I woulda already gone and joined the afterlife. And don’t you worry none, I won’t bother you at work.”  
You huff, looking around a little before finishing the walk to work and starting your shift a couple minutes late. Your boss is very obviously unhappy with you. He gives you a long lecture about arriving on time that takes a lot longer than your talk with Gamzee had. You huff, finally starting to get to work. You put on your best customer service face and start taking orders. It’s really busy right away, and by the time ten o clock comes around and the customers thin out, you’re exhausted. You take off your apron and get your cigarettes out of it. “I’m taking a smoke break!” you shout, heading out the backdoor. You lean against the wall as you light a cigarette, taking a long drag from it.  
“Tired out, motherfucker?” You jump and look around, spotting a cat with the same markings as the Gamzee dog.  
You sigh, nodding at looking back in front of you. “Yeah. Is it so much to ask that we don’t get bombarded with customers every morning? I mean, come on, there must be somewhere else you can eat!”  
You hear them chuckle, and the cat sits in front of you. “Shit, man. That sounds god-awful. Wish I could help.”  
You sigh, taking another drag off your cigarette. “Well, I appreciate the thought, but I’m gonna have to grit and bear it I guess.” You put your cig out and head back inside.  
Right before your shift is about to end, a customer calls you over. She tells you, very rudely, you might add, that her order was wrong. You ask if you can see the receipt and she says she didn’t get one, she needs a new order. You ask her where the wrong order is and she says she ate it. Your eye twitches a little. You say you can’t give her a new order if she already ate it. She starts to yell at you and you try to calmly explain to her. She spits in your face and storms off. God, fuck people. You wipe the saliva off of your cheek, grimacing. You sigh, looking at the clock. Oh, goodie, time to clock out. Just as you walk out the door, you see a swarm of birds going after the woman. You try not to snicker and just force yourself to walk the other way. After a minute, Gamzee in bird form lands on your shoulder, looking about as pleased with themself as a bird can get. You chuckle.  
Once you get to your apartment building, Gamzee flies off your shoulder to somewhere else, and you begin to go to your apartment. When you get there, Gamzee is already waiting for you in their primary form on your couch.  
“Do you not have a place to sleep or anything?”   
They shake their head. “Not that, just looking out for you.”  
You quirk an eyebrow up. “Why do you have to look out for me in my own apartment?”  
“Burglars,” They reply simply.   
You sigh, going to the fridge and heating up some microwave dinner for you. You don’t bother getting Gamzee anything, they can feed themself. You sigh and turn on a romcom as with your food in hand. You hear a ding from your phone and check it. “Shit! I forgot I was meeting up with Terezi!” You snatch up your phone and scramble to change out of your work uniform and into some casual clothes. You practically run to get to your meetup spot.  
Terezi looks at you incredulously, though she can’t really look at you, it sure does feel like she’s staring into your soul. “What took you so long?”  
You pant for breath, leaning on the table. “Sorry, I- lost track of time.” You hear giggling and you look up, seeing that Dave is there as well. “Hi Dave.” He nods at you, not looking up from his phone. You hear a little pitter patter of paws after a second and turn around to see dog Gamzee running at you. They bark a couple times, stopping at your feet and panting.  
“Oh, hey there, doggy. What are you up to?” Dave finally puts his phone down to kneel by Gamzee and pet them. Gamzee, apparently, has no objections to this, and closes his eyes, leaning into the touch.   
You sigh. “Fucking hell, Gamzee…”  
“Wait, Karkat, is this your dog?” Terezi prys.  
You sigh again. “No, it just started following me around.”  
Dave chuckles, “Well, in that case, I’m gonna take him home with me. He’s cute.”  
You roll your eyes. “No you won’t. You have no idea how to take care of a dog.”  
He pouts at you, scooping Gamzee up in his arms. “Too late, he’s mine now. I think I’ll name him… Hairball.” Gamzee looks unimpressed now, staring up at Dave with an “are you serious” face.  
“Hehe, I don’t think he likes that, Dave,” Terezi chuckles.  
You move to take Gamzee from him. “Their name is Gamzee.”  
“Pfft, says who? You said he wasn’t your dog, so you don’t get to name him.” Dave holds Gamzee to his chest.  
Gamzee yips at that, but is otherwise just letting Dave hold him. Goddamn traitor. “They’re not your dog, either.” You state. They don’t belong to anyone, really.   
Dave scoffs. “Says who?” Gamzee, apparently bored of being held, tries to wiggle out of Dave’s arms.  
“Says them, apparently,” Terezi cackles. “I don’t think they like you anymore.” Gamzee manages to free themself from Dave, shaking off and sitting by your feet. Dave pouts, sitting back in his own seat.   
You take out your laptop and start to work on your novel. You startle a little when Gamzee speaks to you. “Whatcha working on, there?” You look at Dave and Terezi, who are talking to each other. “Don’t worry, they can’t hear me. I’m in your head. Just think about your response.”  
You try not to be weirded out by that, and convey what you’re doing by thinking about it. It seems they get it and their presence withdraws from your mind.  
“So, I wanted to ask yalls opinion on my new album.” Dave pipes up. He takes out his laptop, putting earbuds in and giving one of each to you. You hesitantly put one in and listen to Dave’s music. It’s… surprisingly good, and you tell him so. “See, knew you’d love it.” He grins, and you snort.  
“It’s not, like, a masterpiece or whatever, it’s just good for something that you did.” You scoff.  
Terezi interrupts before you can get into an argument. “Well I, for one, think it’s great.”  
You chat with them a few more hours over burgers and fries. Eventually you part ways, Gamzee still following you to your apartment before heading off as you get there. You sigh, seeing Gamzee already laying on your bed when you get to it, and you curl up under the covers.


	3. Chapter 3

You wake up to something licking at your face. You splutter and shove at it, getting up to see Gamzee in dog form panting and sitting on your chest. “Fuck, Gamzee, what time is it?” You grope around for your phone, blinking at the light. “It’s like, four in the morning, what do you want?”  
They hop off your bed and exit the room, clearly they want you to follow them. You sigh, getting up reluctantly and going after them. They run into the kitchen, where you see broken plates on the floor, before quickly turning into a rat and scurrying off, leaving you to clean up their mess. You groan, deciding to get it tomorrow and going back to bed.   
The next morning, you’re going to get your coffee, like usual, when suddenly something comes barreling into you. You grunt as you fall to the ground, and Gamzee tumbles down beside you. You sit up and open your mouth to scold him when you see the broken glass that you didn’t pick up yet.   
“Sorry! I knocked it over and I tried to get you to clean it up last night…”  
You huff, “Yeah, I kind of knew that. I just forgot about it. Thanks, I guess.”  
They shrug. “My fault. I don’t guess this counts as me saving you, ‘cause I caused it…”  
You huff, but it’s not like you mind having them follow you around. You just won’t let them know that. You get up and grab the broom and dustpan to sweep up the mess. You finally get your coffee and sit at the table so you can drink it in peace. It just so happens that today is your day off, and you wanted to go meet up with your friends. Well, they wanted you to, you were just going to spend the day inside. You look at your phone and decide it’s about time you got ready.  
About halfway there, you spot Gamzee running at you in dog form. You don’t bother to slow down for them. When you get there, John waves at you, immediately going to hug you.  
“John! Let me go, you’re suffocating me!”  
He giggles, putting you down and stepping back. “Oops, sorry!” You just huff and brush yourself off.  
“Hey, it’s that dog again!” Dave says, “He really seems to like you, dude.”  
This draws everyone else’s attention to Gamzee, and they immediately crowd around them, all trying to pet them at once. This seems to startle them, as they get flat on their stomach and pin their ears to their head. This doesn’t dissuade John, who reaches out to pet them. They jump, imminently going to bite the offending hand. John jumps back, holding it to his chest. “Hey! It bit me!”  
You immediately jump in to scoop Gamzee up in your arms to prevent them shifting in front of your friends. You can slightly see their form waver, and you don’t want any trouble. You tuck them into your hoodie and zip it up. “You scared them, asshole! You were all crowding around them and shit!” You can tell that hiding them was a good idea, they’ve gotten smaller inside your hoodie.  
Jade frowns a little. “Yeah, that probably was a bad idea… I could tell they were getting anxious.” She looks at your stomach, where Gamzee’s body is making a small bump in the fabric of your hoodie. “Hey, We’re sorry, little puppy. We didn’t mean to scare you…”   
Gamzee moves around in your hoodie, but you don’t feel them change form so you keep them there. “C’mon, weren’t we gonna go to that festival or some shit?” At that, Gamzee moves around some more, popping their dog head out of your hoodie beside yours. They’re panting, tongue lolling out of their mouth and they look at you. You huff, pushing at their snout. “You can’t go on any rides. Dogs can’t go on rides.” They whine a little, giving you a sad little look.  
“We could sneak him on!” suggests John, apparently having forgotten about the nasty bite on his hand. You glare at him.  
“No, they could get hurt. They’re too small to be going on any human rides.” You hold them inside your hoodie. “Besides, they’re not even my dog.”  
“You seem to have a lot of trust in that dog you’ve supposedly never met. How do you know it isn’t diseased or feral?” Rose inquires.  
You blink, then scoff. “It’s been following me a while. I think I’d know if they were a rabid animal.” You pat Gamzee’s head a little and their tail thumps against your stomach. They haven’t made a move to get out of your hoodie, so you keep them there. Jade goes to pet them, holding her hand out to make sure it’s okay before gently patting their head. They seem happy to receive the pets now, closing their eyes and letting their mouth hang open.  
“Is that why you couldn’t come help me a while ago? Because you had to take care of this dog that was following you?” Sollux lisped out.  
You nod. “Yeah… they were injured, so I… fixed them up. They haven’t stopped following me since.” You hug Gamzee a little bit, careful not to squeeze them too hard. They nuzzle into you, licking your face a little. You decide now would be a good time to get them out of your hoodie, unzipping it and letting them jump to the ground. They shake off a little as you dust off some dog hair from your shirt.   
“They could probably have some fun there, anyway. Festival food is practically a dog’s paradise.” Jade says as you all start to walk off toward the event.  
You all talk about meaningless things on the way, and you each pay for your own tickets when you get there. The first thing you do is go to the food stands with Sollux and get Gamzee a couple of hotdogs with no buns and yourself a funnel cake. You don’t plan on doing anything that could make you nauseous later, so you think you’ll be fine. Gamzee scarfs down the hotdogs, the meat is gone before you even find a table to sit at. You decide to sit with Sollux, who’s munching on some nachos.  
“Sup.” He greets you through a mouthful.  
“Gross,” you roll your eyes at him, sitting to eat your funnel cake. “What’s with the food? Thought you'd be going on that spinning ride?”  
He shrugs. “Maybe I just feel like puking all over myself. The day is still young, KK. I have plenty of time to digest this.”  
You shrug, eating your funnel cake. Gamzee wanders around nearby, presumably looking for discarded food and dead things to eat. You don’t bother paying him any attention as you finish it off and toss the paper plate into the garbage. Immediately after, Terezi is grabbing you and dragging you off somewhere. “Whoah, wait, where are we going?”  
She doesn’t answer, dragging you into a line. You huff a little bit, trying to get away once she lets go, but she just grabs your arm again. “You have to wait, fussypants! I can’t go on this ride unassisted.”  
You groan and roll your eyes. It’s a long wait, and by the time you see what ride it is, it’s already too late and Terezi is dragging you on.  
“Hey, wait, I told you I wasn’t going to ride the tornado!”  
She laughs, dragging you in with her. “C’mon, don’t be such a pussy!”  
You resign yourself to your fate, pressing yourself against the wall as the ride fills up.  
As soon as your off, you immediately rush toward the nearest trash can and, oh, there goes that funnel cake. Damn, the food here is expensive, too. Gamzee decides to sit by you as you slump down against the nearest wall.  
"What do you want?" You demand.  
They tilt their head to the side, "You doing okay, brother?"  
You groan. "What does it look like? I just puked my guts out. I should have known at least one of them would try forcing me on one of the vomit-inducing rides."  
Terezi comes stumbling out of the ride, groping around the table of people's possessions for her cane. You go to help her, but Gamzee decides to find it and drag it to her in their mouth.  
"Oh, thank you, hmmm." She reaches her hand out to where it came from, then down, eventually finding the top of Gamzee's head and patting it. "Thank you Gamzee. Are you sure they're not trained?"  
You roll your eyes, even though she can't see it and sigh. "I didn't say they weren't trained, I said they weren't mine."  
"Well, they're a good dog. Aren't you buddy? Bet you'd make a hella fine service dog."  
Gamzee puffs their chest out and pants, adoring the attention. You just stand on wobbly legs and go to get a drink of water.  
You're there for a while until it gets dark, the festival is slowing down. You’ve just finished off the last of the food you bought when John comes and taps you on the shoulder. “Let's go ride the ferris wheel before we go!” You sigh, nodding and following him in line. There are lights on each part of the ferris wheel that have been turned on now that the sun is setting.  
Jade happens to be standing in front of you in line and she turns to you. “I think this ride operator has been letting people bring pets on.” She gestures toward Gamzee, who’s been diligently following you all day.  
Once you get to the front of the line, you ask the person manning it if he’ll let Gamzee on. He nods, and you thank him while Gamzee bolts onto the ride. You sit next to John in the booth and Gamzee leaps into your lap to look over the ground below. You sigh softly as you pet them, looking out over the festival as well. It does look sort of pretty from up here, and you smile.


End file.
